The Astrology of Johnny Depp

The Wild Boy of Hollywood

Johnny Depp attributes his reputation as the ‘wild boy’ of Hollywood to his ‘hellish temper’ as he described it in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. We put it down to an explosive triple conjunction of Mars with unpredictable Uranus and ruthless Pluto rising in his birth chart!

This powerhouse of fighting energy vitally needs an active outlet, and because in Depp's chart it falls in hard working Virgo, it can be most effectively expressed though the swashbuckling roles he plays in his acting career. Otherwise it risks spilling over into his personal relationships, giving the potential for some spectacularly impulsive behavior and some potentially violent fights! continued below...

With an unsettled childhood and rebellious adolescence behind him, what Depp – an excitable Gemini with flamboyant Leo rising – clearly needed was a bit of calm and stability in his life. We all thought he had found it in his 14 year partnership with his sultry French girlfriend, Vanessa Paradis, a no-nonsense Capricorn and the devoted mother of his two children.

Although they never married, there was no question that, as a couple, these two were very good for each other. Vanessa’s Jupiter (the planet of good luck) in conjunction with Johnny’s Moon (representing his home and family) inspired her to create a life of domestic bliss for the formerly rootless actor in their multi-million dollar homes in Los Angeles and the South of France. Fittingly, one might say, for a woman whose name means ‘paradise’ (yes, and it is her real name!)

The Rebel in Johnny's Soul

That was all swept away, however, in November 2011 when a life-changing Eclipse hit Depp’s natal Sun, reawakening the rebel in his soul. After so many years as a loyal family man, a new sense of recklessness gave him a taste for the fresh and exotic – which he soon found in the shape of the sexy Taurean actress Amber Heard, twenty three years his junior and openly bisexual.

In 2013, with his Moon under fire from a dual transit by Uranus, the planet of experimentation, and Pluto, the planet of compulsion, it’s easy to see why Johnny fell so madly and, in hindsight so recklessly, in love with a woman with whom he had little in common, aside from shared professional interests.

Then, when a further Eclipse hit his Gemini Sun in April 2016, it was all change once again. In May 2016 Amber Heard filed for divorce from Depp citing irreconcilable differences and accusing him of domestic violence. Their marriage had lasted just 15 months – so what exactly went wrong? continued below...

Born with Saturn, the planet of karma, in his House of Partnerships, it was always likely that marriage would pose a problem for Johnny Depp, This Saturn placement is notorious for delaying marriage, sometimes forever. If it does happen, the union can be beset by tough challenges and responsibilities.

Ominously, Depp’s Saturn also formed a square aspect to Amber’s natal Venus, introducing a great deal of tension, and at times coldness, into their relationship. Because openly showing warmth and affection doesn't come easily to Saturn, his Venus partner soon ends up feeling unappreciated and unloved. For this reason, Saturn-Venus squares are probably the most difficult to handle of all compatibility cross-aspects and the most common cause of relationship break-ups.

Trying to Put a Lid on a Powder Keg

But by far the most menacing contact between the two charts clearly lay in the restrictive square aspect between Amber’s Saturn (the planet of discipline) and Johnny’s explosive Mars, Uranus, Pluto conjunction – the source of what he himself describes as his ‘hellish temper’.

With her Saturn blocking this potentially dangerous energy in Johnny’s chart, we can be certain that Amber will have tried to put a firm foot down on any kind of out-of-control behavior on his part. But we can be equally sure that, the more she attempted to put a lid on Johnny’s ‘powder keg’ anger, the more she is likely to have stirred it up.

Depp’s rebellious Uranus won’t submit easily to restrictions or control, especially when flanked by angry Mars and compulsive Pluto, and all the more when imposed by someone more than twenty years his junior. Eventually, with a set-up of this kind, sparks are inevitably going to fly, and – as in the present case – the consequences will never be pretty.